Psychic Company: Case 02 - Seraph Pt.2
She suddenly understood what the child had meant when he said the angel showed him what the woman looked like.
The flight into Reno was late at night. Emily took a cab to St. Mary's Regional Hospital, where a nurse guided her to the child's hospital room. The child, according to the nurse, hadn't been sleeping well due to recurring nightmares.
Emily peeked at her phone. 2AM. "Is it all right to go see him now?" she asked.
The nurse glanced in the direction of the child's room and said, "It should be all right. Perhaps a change of pace would be good for him."
Emily knocked on the child's door before opening it a crack. "Hello?" she said.
The child gazed up at the TV in the corner of the room, watching but not really paying attention. He looked over at Emily when she popped her head in. "Who're you?"
Emily took a cautious step into the room. She tried to smile and said, "My name is Emily Lehr. I'm here to talk with you about what happened yesterday."
The child shifted nervously. "He said you would come."
Emily raised a brow. "Who?" she asked and took a seat next to the child's bed.
"The angel." The child reached over for a notebook and flipped through it. When he found what he was looking for, he showed it to Emily. "He said he was sorry and that he was looking for someone."
Emily took the drawing and examined it. Though it was a crude child's drawing, she could make out that the angel was clothed in white robes, had dark skin, long white hair, and blue eyes. She gave the drawing back and said, "Did he tell you who he was looking for?"
"He showed me." The child flipped to the previous page which showed a woman with dark skin and wearing Mesoamerican-style clothing. Unlike the crude drawing of the angel, this one was practically a photograph. Emily was amazed.
"You drew this?"
The child shrugged. "Not really. He showed me how."
"Do you mind if I take a picture?"
"Okay."
Emily took a picture of both drawings and sent them to Office 3. She thanked the child for giving his time, told him he should rest, and quietly slipped out of his room. Outside the child's room she took a deep breath and out, calming herself. The level of detail in the drawing of the woman was incredible. Was that a seraph's power? Would the child be okay? She called Oliver and started toward the elevators. "Did you take a look at the photos I sent?"
"I'm looking at them now."
A whistle in the background. "That kid drew both these?" Jules said.
"Where's Willoughby?" Emily asked.
"In a call with Spiegel—Willoughby's calming him down. The sandstorm's just outside Las Vegas and Office 4 is getting nervous," Oliver said.
"It's their own fault for withholding the video for so long. I bet you they weren't even going to let us know if Willoughby hadn’t gotten that leak," Jules said.
"Jules, if you have time to wag your tongue you can start digging into who that woman is. I bet that's who our seraph is looking for."
Jules sighed. "Yes, ma'am."
"So it was a who not a what, huh?" Oliver thought aloud.
"Seems that way," Emily replied. "Anyway, is it safe enough to fly into Vegas right now? How far is the storm?"
"Hmm. Commercial flights will probably be delayed, but I can get you a private jet in about an hour."
"Sounds good. Where is our field team right now?"
"Kain is driving in from LA, so he's still quite a few hours out. Charles and Ethel are already there—flew in this morning."
"Kain is driving from LA?"
"Yeah, he's picking up an Office 4 associate who just can't fly."
"Huh. I guess we'll have some interesting people along for this case. Anyway, thanks for the help. I'll see you—"
An urgent notification chirped on her phone. It was a message from Willoughby saying the sandstorm changed course and was now headed toward Phoenix, Arizona. She sighed.
Oliver almost laughed on the other end of the line. "Did you just get that message, too?"
"Yes," she groaned.
"Guess you're not going to Vegas."
Phoenix in July was hot. It was hotter than Emily had ever experienced before—hotter than she was even expecting. Walking out the airport doors was like walking into an oven. In the distance, a tall Black woman with beautiful freckles wearing a white blouse and a long, deep blue skirt waved her over. Next to her was a short Asian woman wearing a tank top and a pair of jean shorts. Behind them was a tiny blue vintage Fiat 500. They were both very beautiful and with the car in the back it was almost picturesque.
"Are you—"
"Yep, that's us," the Black woman said. "And we're in a rush. Sandstorm is swinging right by us and we gotta head straight for it. Get in the car." She grabbed Emily's luggage, shoved it in the back, and got behind the steering wheel. The tiny Fiat roared to life.
"Wait, could you—"
The short Asian woman gently guided Emily into the back seat. It took a second but she realised the inside of the car was much larger than the outside.
"This car... is it enchanted?"
"Indeed it is now let's get a move on," the Black woman said and they were off.
A few minutes into the drive, the Asian woman turned to Emily and said, "My name's Fiona but we're gonna work together so you can call me Fifi." She rested a hand on the Black woman's shoulder. "This is my girlfriend, Lilian. You can call her Lily."
"Fifi and Lily?" Emily said.
"That's right," Fiona said. "And just so you know, we're mages."
"As in, spells and stuff?" Emily asked.
Lilian laughed. "It's a little more complicated than that, but sure."
"Is it like what Charles does?"
"That's the kotodama guy you got, right?" Fiona asked. "You can pretty much say his power is about five times stronger than one of us."
Emily's eyes widened. "Wait, what? Five times?"
"It takes a couple of us, chanting in sync, to cast a spell. But that guy can do it with just a couple words. Hurts like fuck though—so I hear.” Fiona grimaced. “Wouldn't want to be in his position."
Emily looked outside as they drove east along the highway. The giant cloud of sand swirled ominously in the distance, a gentle glow emanating from deep within. Everything east of Superstition Springs and south of Parkwood Ranch, all the way down to Tucson, had been evacuated just in case. Some of it was still going on, according to the radio reports. But needless to say, no one else was on the road.
They pulled up to a Jack in the Box in Gold Canyon where the others were waiting. The sandstorm rolled across the Superstition Mountains about ten klicks out and was due to swing around the area, just barely passing by the suburb, so this was the designated home base for now. It was as close as they could get without risking their lives.
Charles and Ethel, having flown in from Las Vegas about an hour beforehand, went out to greet their Field Captain.
"You made it," Charles said. "Didn't think you were gonna."
"It's so hot. Can we catch up inside?" Emily said.
"You get used to it," Charles said, laughing as he held the door open for everyone. "Ethel and I've been down here for two weeks already for another case."
"Uh-huh. You forget I’m the one who gave you two that one?"
"Oh, I forgot you're assigning cases instead of Willoughby. What's that old guy doing now that he's got such a prodigious protégé?"
Emily smiled. "A lot of socializing, apparently. And he's not that old."
"It's good to see you, Field Captain," Ethel said quietly. Her voice was so soft and cute.
"I know it's been a while, but there's no need to be so formal all of a sudden," Emily said and gave the small girl a bear hug. "And it's good to see you, too!"
Lilian set Emily's luggage down by the front counter and then went into the kitchen to make a call.
Emily looked around the fast food restaurant. The walls were red stucco, the floors a cream colored stone, and most of the tables and chairs were stacked up against the wall on the far side of the entrance. "Where is everyone?"
"On their way," Fiona said. "Your guy is driving our commander over here and our second is on his way in from Tuscon. Should be here shortly—oh, speak of the devil."
A dark red pickup blasting loud music pulled into the parking lot. There was something humorous about the image of a huge truck next to a tiny car and Emily couldn't help but smile. A tall man with golden hair and olive skin climbed out, grabbed something from the back of his truck, and headed straight for them.
"Who's that?" Emily asked.
"Adonis—our second," Fiona replied.
"That his real name?"
Fiona snorted. "Yup," she drawled. "He's from here so he's been helping with the evacuation. Guess they're all done now."
Adonis opened the restaurant door awkwardly with his boot and set boxes of stuff down. He wiped the sweat from his face with his white t-shirt and then locked eyes with Emily. "You must be Field Captain Emily Lehr. I'm Adonis Reyes, the Second-in-command of Storm Chasers. It's nice to meet you." He reached out for a handshake and Emily stared at his big, soft hands. Honestly, his whole image intimidated her. She felt like he took better care of himself than the entirety of Office 3 combined.
She took a deep breath and shook his hand. "It's, uh, nice to meet you, too, Adonis. Willoughby didn't mention anything about Storm Chasers. Is that the name of your field team?" Emily asked.
"We're not a field team—just moles here to help out," Adonis said. "Storm Chasers is the name of our unit since we usually go after supernatural weather phenomena." He pointed to the sandstorm. "This is kind of our area of expertise."
"Oh, so you're the associates Spiegel's sending us. Thank you so much! We appreciate all the help we can get."
From the manager’s office, Lilian shouted, "I did it!" The two TV screens that usually showed restaurant menus—as well as two additional screens set up below—immediately flickered to life. She walked out with a tablet and said, "We got real time weather data, local news, a dedicated communications screen... And here, this is the best one." She tapped her tablet and the bottom left screen switched to a live feed of the sandstorm. "Camera on the roof lets us keep an eye on this sucker at all times."
"That's convenient," Emily said. She watched the storm on the screen and suddenly felt like she was in way over her head. Capturing Athena last month was just a fluke or something. If the Lantern of Gabriel hadn't appeared when it did, would they have all died? Would the entire world be captivated by Athena's spell by now?
"Emily?" Ethel said.
"Hm?"
"What are you thinking?"
She shook her head. "It's nothing. I want to get down to business. Adonis, Lily, Fifi, you guys have experience in this area. Any suggestions on what we should do first?"
"We should start by fortifying the building. Then we can go over our options," Adonis said.
"I'll continue setting up the monitoring equipment," Lilian said. "The more information we have the better, in my opinion."
Emily nodded. "Sounds good. Let's get to it."
Two hours later, the sandstorm was within five kilometers of their base. Wind whipped sand, plant debris, and rocks against the boarded up windows. Emily thought it sounded like the souls of the dead were asking to come inside and it made her uncomfortable.
The sound of a car engine outside alerted everyone to the arrival of Kain and the Storm Chasers' commander. Kain came in first, covered in dirt, and right behind him was a scruffy man with freckles, expensive-looking clothes, and stylish sunglasses. Emily watched as the commander greeted his team and asked them to meet in the manager's office.
Kain, meanwhile, plopped himself down in a chair, let out a deep sigh, and said, "Fuck, it's hot." He turned to Emily and continued, "Please tell me we have a plan because I can't have Willoughby and Spiegel breathing down my neck about this. They've been messaging me nonstop for the past hour and I can't handle all these pings."
Emily smiled. "Don't worry. We did some brainstorming before you guys arrived and we think we have a plan." She handed him an open notebook.
Kain stared down at the chicken scratch writing and said flatly, "I can't read this."
Charles burst out laughing and Emily embarrassingly yanked the notebook back. "Basically, we get the seraph's attention and try to talk with it."
"Seraphs aren't malevolent but they're so far removed from humanity—how will you even get its attention? What will you talk about? How are you even sure it'll understand you?"
Emily grinned. She thought of this. "We're going to make it rain."
Kain stared at her like she was crazy. "What? We're in Arizona in the middle of summer and you want to make it rain?"
Behind them someone said, "That's not a bad idea, actually. The rain should lessen the effect of the sandstorm, exposing the angel itself. That should get its attention, but communicating will be a different challenge altogether." It was the Storm Chaser's commander.
Kain clicked his tongue. "I've been in the car with you for hours but do you want to introduce yourself to them?"
"You're right. I'm sorry. My name is Lennox Walker and I'm the commander of Storm Chasers. It's nice to meet you." Lennox seemed good natured and had an air around him that made Emily want to listen to him.
Emily shook his hand and said, "It's nice to meet you, too. I'm glad you agree with the idea—it was Adonis who came up with it. As for communicating with the seraph, leave that to me. I'll get through to him."
"Worth a try. Do you want to start now? The storm will reach Tucson by nightfall so we should hurry."
Emily glanced at her team for confirmation before meeting Lennox's eyes with determination. "We're ready whenever you are."
Lennox turned to his team and clapped his hands. "Let's get started."
"I'm sorry I can't help you," Charles said to the Storm Chasers.
Lennox, good guy he was, simply smiled and gave Charles' shoulder a squeeze. "It's okay. You should save your energy. We might need it later."
Emily and her team watched through the cracks between the plywood fortifications as the Storm Chasers gathered in a circle in the parking lot, protecting themselves from the storm in the shadow of Adonis' truck. They joined hands and, with their heads down in a solemn manner, began to chant. It was quiet at first, drowned out by the howling of the wind. Balls of light appeared around them, undisturbed by the wind like they were on a completely different plane of existence. As the Storm Chasers' voices increased in volume they began to echo and the balls of light glowed brighter. The balls of light seemed to dance in the air, swirling around the team, until finally the balls launched themselves into the sky as if they were passing a message to the universe itself. The air suddenly felt electric and the sky morphed to the team's will, magically filling with dark grey clouds pregnant with evaporated lakes from who knows where.
The first raindrops fell on the vehicles out front, huge globs of water rolling down their sides, and became a downpour within seconds. Tiny rivers of rainwater snaked their way across the concrete and huge puddles formed in the dimples in the ground.
Emily ran back to watch the sandstorm feed. The rest of her team joined her by the TVs as the seraph's camouflage came apart in muddy chunks. Now mostly unhidden, they could see its body was made of pure light, like the sun, and that it was faceless. Not wanting to miss this chance, Emily said, “Stay here, guys,” and bolted out the back. Her coworkers called after her but she didn’t look back. Instead, she looked up at the faceless angel and screamed, "Stop right there!"
The seraph froze. It turned and looked down at Emily, its thoughts unknowable. "Impressive," it said.
Kain came out after Emily and looked up at the massive being, blinking through the rain. "What are you looking for?" he asked but the seraph seemed to ignore him.
Looking only at Emily, the seraph said, "You have the voice of an angel. A voice of command. Why is that?" It shrank down into its human form—like that depicted in the child's drawing—and examined Emily. Before she could speak it continued, "Ah, dear Gabriel's Lantern." It smiled. "So it's finally found a new master."
"It's not acknowledging me at all. Ask it what it wants," Kain whispered to Emily.
Emily took a half step forward and said, "What do you want?"
The seraph ignored her question and posed another question, "Have you seen this woman?"
A vision flashed in Emily's mind. A beautiful woman in Mesoamerican clothing, smiling at her. The sun was bright, the plants green, the river clear. The woman laughed and called the angel's name but all Emily heard was a sharp garble of sounds. And just like that it was over.
When Emily came back from the vision she fell to her knees, her mind a haze. She suddenly understood what the child had meant when he said the angel showed him what the woman looked like.
Kain rushed to her side. "Are you okay?" He sounded a little on edge.
Emily stuck her hand out, keeping Kain away. "I'm fine," she told him and then looked up at the seraph, its gaze hard on her as if she were just a speck compared to its magnificence. "I don't know who that woman is, but trust me, we're already looking for her."
"You ask for trust when you haven't earned any." The seraph looked to the southern horizon. "I must hurry. She was facing a cruel people who had come to desecrate her community."
A look of revelation came over Kain's face. He whispered something to Emily and her brows knitted together. To the seraph she said, "What year do you think it is?"
The seraph looked bored. "Ah, your human method of telling time is exhausting. What did that man say? It is the year 1521 AD."
With that, Kain and Emily instantly understood what was going on. Emily hazarded a few contrary words, "Actually, it's 2025."
The air felt empty as the seraph simply stared at Emily with an expressionless face. Then, like a crack in a vase, the seraph smiled sadly. "I wish you were lying."
"What do you—"
Its skin paled and its six wings, bright and blinding, quickly darkened. Brittle feathers drifted in the wind until the skin sloughed off. The atmosphere was suffocating. Eventually, the wings themselves fell off completely, replaced by those of a more bat-like nature. With the flap of its new wings it took off toward Mexico.
The significance of what just happened wasn't lost on Emily and Kain. They had just witnessed an angel fall. Not just any angel, either—a seraph, a member of the highest order.
Lennox stepped out from around the corner, his face pale. "What... was that?"
Kain walked over and gripped the man's shoulder, squeezing it comfortingly. "An angel just fell." He turned to Emily who was in somewhat of a daze. "Hey, Field Captain, what should we do next?"
"Um..." Emily took a shaky breath in. "We... need to regroup. Call all CAMUS offices."